GOVT TO SOON DECIDE ON SIT PROBE INTO POLICE CONDUCT

Maha Vikas Aghadi government will receive legal opinion on the issue within a day or two and then decide its future course of action

The Maha Vikas Aghadi government will soon take a call on the formation of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe police conduct in the Elgar Parishad case after it receives legal opinion. The government expects legal opinion within a day or two. Thereafter, a decision will be announced during the budget session of the state legislature that begins on Monday.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar has been strongly demanding the establishment of SIT and argued that the government has powers under section 10 of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2019, to conduct a parallel inquiry. Pawar, last week, said that the Elgar Parishad case and the case of violence at Koregaon-Bhima in Pune district on January 1, 2018, were two completely different cases.

Pawar, who held talks with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday evening, had alleged that the Fadnavis government and the Pune police misused their power. He also questioned the role of a few Pune police officials in the Elgar Parishad case and the way they booked those who were not even present at that event.

According to Pune police, the Elgar Parishad conclave held in Pune on December 31, 2017, was supported by

Maoists and inflammatory speeches made at the event led to caste violence at Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in the district the next day. Right-wing leaders Milind Ekbote and Sambhaji Bhide are accused in the Koregaon Bhima case.

Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has also discussed the SIT formation issue with Thackeray. A section of legal experts have already briefed the Home Ministry, saying that the government can set up SIT to inquire into the police conduct in the Elgar Parishad case, as it is not in the Schedule List of Offences under the NIA Act, 2019.

Further, Minister of Water Resources Jayant Patil, on Friday, said that the state government can carry out an independent and parallel inquiry in the Elgar Parishad case despite the probe being taken over by the NIA.